Page 91 of Stick Fight

“What are you talking about?” Avery asks, peering up at me like I've grown a second head.

Wait, did I say that out loud?

I turn to her, squinting one eye shut to try and steady the world. “I think...I think I just saw Gabby.”

“Gabby? That was Mrs. Roper, dude. Whoever that even is. Remember? There’s a whole convention going on.”

“Yeah,” I mutter, scrubbing a hand over the back of my neck, trying to keep my head from spinning clean off my shoulders. That’s when Rip stumbles out into the hall, a bridesmaid clinging to him like a human scarf.

“What’s going on?” he asks, and somehow he sounds way more sober than either of us.

Avery slaps a hand on my chest, nearly knocking me back a step. “Romeo here thinks he just saw Gabby.”

Rip’s gaze sharpens immediately, slicing through the drunken haze hanging around us.

“Gabby's here?” he says, voice low and serious.

The crease between his brows deepens, and a cold blade of unease cuts through my buzz. “What’s going on?” I demand, straightening up. I shake my head. No. No way. That couldn’t have been her. Gabby’s with Cass. That’s why she’s been ghosting my calls, leaving my texts on read.

Rip yanks out his phone and starts scrolling furiously. I hold my hand up. “I don’t want to see it again,” I groan, my stomach doing slow, miserable flips as the image pops into my mind.

Gabby and Cass, tucked into some cozy, candlelit restaurant, heads bent together, laughing like they were the only two people left on the planet. Then that gut-punch shot of them at the airport, locked in an embrace that was way too intimate for ‘just friends’.

Yeah, I looked again. I said I wouldn’t, but who the hell was I kidding? Masochist, table for one. The internet was already a madhouse over Avery and me — but Gabby and Cass?

FASHION'S HOTTEST COLLAB IS BACK,the headlines screamed, each word slamming into my chest like a fist.

I really did it.

I really pushed her straight back into his arms.

Hell, I wasn’t worried about Gabby believing the rumors about Avery and me — because come on, that was different. We’re friends. Always were. But Gabby and Cass? They were engaged. About to build a life together. And Gabby had pressed pause on that whole future...until I shoved her right back toward it.

Fucking idiot.

But hey, better she regrets me now than resents me later, right?

You really believe that, dude?

My stomach coils tight. And when Rip's eyes, sharp, pained, way too sober, lift to meet mine, everything inside me collapses. Without thinking, I slide down the wall until I’m sitting on the cold, hard floor, my back thudding against it. He doesn’t have to say it. It’s written all over his face.

I fucked up.

“Rip?” My voice is barely a croak.

Rip holds out his phone, a picture pulled up on the screen. Cass, locked in an embrace. But not with Gabby. With some guy I don’t recognize.

“Looks like Cass came out,” Rip says, his voice careful, like he's tiptoeing through broken glass. “I’m not sure who Todd is.”

A hollow laugh rattles out of me. “Todd’s Gabby’s old best friend,” I say, pulling my knees up to my chest. I wrap my arms around them like I can somehow hold myself together. “Do you think that was...Gabby?” I ask, my voice cracking right down the middle.

“I don't know, man,” Rip says quietly. “Maybe she was trying to surprise you. Mrs. Roper costume, full circle, you know? Like what Elias and Taylor did.”

The pieces click. I glance at Avery’s sash—Just Married—and the fake plastic ring still spinning on her finger.

“Oh my God.” I stare at Avery, horror dawning fast. “I got married. Holy shit, Avery, we got married.”

Avery lifts her hand, pops off the ring, and darts back into the reception, laughing. “Relax, Romeo. You didn’t get married,” Rip says, crouching beside me.

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